Screamin' Jay Hawkins - "I Put A Spell On You" (1956)

This is the actual recording of a last rare interview with
Jay Hawkins. Go down to the play symbol and click. Listen to him tell his amazing story!
http://medialoper.com/screamin-jay-hawkins-is-a-wild-man-so-bug-off/

Jalacy Hawkins (July 18, 1929, Cleveland, Ohio — February 12, 2000, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France), best known as Screamin' Jay Hawkins was an African-American musician, singer, and actor. Famed chiefly for his powerful, operatic vocal delivery and wildly theatrical performances of songs such as "I Put a Spell on You", Hawkins sometimes used macabre props onstage, making him one of the few early shock rockers.

Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Hawkins studied classical piano as a child and learned guitar in his twenties. His original career goal was to become a powerful bass baritone singer in the footsteps of Paul Robeson. When his initial ambitions failed, he began his career as a conventional blues singer and pianist.

He served in the United States Army Air Force in the Pacific theater during World War II, primarily as an entertainer. Although he claimed to have been tortured for some time as a prisoner of war, stories of the circumstances of his actual capture vary. According to the documentary, I Put a Spell on Me, upon liberation he blew his chief tormentor's head off by taping a hand-grenade into his mouth and pulling the pin. Hawkins was an avid and formidable boxer. In 1949, he was the middleweight boxing champion of Alaska.

In 1951, he joined guitarist Tiny Grimes for a while, and recorded a few songs with him. When Hawkins became a solo performer, he often performed in a very stylish wardrobe, featuring leopard skins, red leather and wild hats.

His most successful recording, "I Put a Spell on You" (1956), was selected as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. According to the AllMusic Guide to the Blues, "Hawkins originally envisioned the tune as a refined ballad." The entire band was intoxicated during a recording session where "Hawkins screamed, grunted, and gurgled his way through the tune with utter drunken abandon." The resulting performance was no ballad but instead a "raw, guttural track" that became his greatest commercial success and reportedly surpassed a million copies in sales, although it failed to make the Billboard pop or R&B charts.

The performance was mesmerizing, although Hawkins himself blacked out and was unable to remember the session. Afterward he had to relearn the song from the recorded version. Meanwhile the record label released a second version of the single, removing most of the grunts that had embellished the original performance; this was in response to complaints about the recording's overt sexuality. Nonetheless it was banned from radio in some areas.

Soon after the release of "I Put a Spell on You", radio disc jockey Alan Freed offered Hawkins $300 to emerge from a coffin onstage. Hawkins accepted and soon created an outlandish stage persona in which performances began with the coffin and included "gold and leopard skin costumes and notable voodoo stage props, such as his smoking skull on a stick -- named Henry -- and rubber snakes." These props were suggestive of voodoo, but also presented with comic overtones that invited comparison to "a black Vincent Price." On Notorious B.I.G's posthumous release, Life After Death, the song "Kick In The Door" heavily samples the saxophone line in Screamin' Jay's song.

Read more complete details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screamin'_Jay_Hawkins

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Entertainment

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[RasJC]

What is the movie with this devil ? :E

[Bacmaster]

@RasJC I'm not sure if it's from a movie??? I think it's only an animation made by someone??

I could be wrong...

[johnbaldwin207]

@Bacmaster Häxan, a silent horror movie from the early 1920s.

[Bacmaster]

@johnbaldwin207 Thank you for sharing that information with the viewers. I'll send you the new video.

Joe

[esperanza7667]

his version of the song is definitely the very best!

[nemo227]

I'll bet Screamin' Jay Hawkins would have liked this (had he lived this long). It's a clever video.

[hammythehippy]

the fuck is with the wheelchair ha! absolutely savage song.but nina simone does something with this song that makes my insides cry out for more

[zimmy81]

Still get the blood pumpin .

[lapsiquisarcaica1]

This is the best version in the history!! one and only!

[johnbaldwin207]

@Bacmaster Looks as though I was only 4 months late...

[Robomonkey101]

This style is so unique.

[ROCKOEDELIK15]

THE END IS THE BEST PART WHEN HE MAKE'S THOSE FUNNY NOISE'S...LOVE IT !!!!!!!!!!!

[adb140275]

who's here because of the buick commercial?

[rotemberli]

please if anyone has the notes of the tenor part tell me what they are

my e-mail is rtkosher@yahoo.com